CLARKSVILLE —
Maria Ridenour gave up her Saturday morning to walk alone through Lapping Park picking up trash carelessly left by others.
The densely spread leaves overhead kept the park cool and dark compared to the shining sun hovering beyond the trees.
Ridenour walks with gloves on her hands and a large trash bag hanging at her side. She takes a few steps, stops, reaches to the ground, picks up a piece of trash and places the item into a large brown trash bag.
Then she repeats.
“There are a lot of cigarette butts out here. A whole lot,” Ridenour said. “I wish I had a dollar for every one I’ve picked up.”
Ridenour was one of more than 250 volunteers who combed through some of Clark County’s most scenic areas to collect litter and other garbage washed in from the river during the annual Ohio River Sweep. Local participation was part of a concerted, six-state River Sweep effort to remove debris from nearly 1,000 miles of Ohio River shoreline. River Sweep organizers provided each of the high-spirited, garbage-gathering volunteers with gloves and trash bags then released them into four parks designated for the cleanup.
The locations included Falls of the Ohio River State Park, Charlestown State Park, Lapping Park and Ashland Park.
New to River Sweep, Ridenour said she decided to volunteer after receiving a flier about the project in the mail.
“I live nearby, in walking distance. So, I just wanted to help out,” she said. “And, it gives me a little exercise.”
Ridenour, a mom and wife from Clarksville, said she didn’t mind sacrificing her time to clean up the park because she often spends time there with her grandson.
“We come out here a lot,” she said. “You can come out here and enjoy the scenery. It is nice to give him a clean place to play.”
Ridenour said she was flabbergasted early in the day when she had watched a person dumping cigarette butts from the ashtray of a vehicle into a parking area as she picked up trash nearby.
“I yelled to him, ‘It’s OK. Don’t worry about. I will get those,’” she said, still amazed at the gall of the litter bug.
But Ridenour, isn’t one to let others’ dismissal of a public issue keep her from lending a hand.
“Not many people are going to come out here and do this,” she said. “I just like helping.”
Clark County Ohio River Sweep Coordinator Carol Huff said this year’s turnout was the most volunteers in the program’s nearly 20-year history. She said helpers represented church groups, civic organizations, Boy Scouts of America and area residents, including many from Louisville.
River Sweep officials said nearly 300 bags of debris, more than 25 automobile tires and a discarded refrigerator were some of the items taken out of the parks during the morning of collecting. Huff said she hopes with the momentum from Saturday’s event, that next year will be even more of a success.
She said people are willing to come out for a few hours of trash collection at public parks because many of them treat the parks like they are their own backyards.
“They want to clean the areas where they come to enjoy time with their families,” Huff said.
She said many of the volunteers showed their appreciation to her and other organizers for hosting the event.
“They were thanking me, but it is the volunteers who deserve to be thanked,” Huff said.
Another first-time River Sweep volunteer Janice Montgomery, of Jeffersonville, arrived at Falls of the Ohio State Park on Saturday ready to get her hands dirty. Montgomery said she regularly visits the park to run, play and “act like a big kid,” and has often noticed trash lining the fossil beds.
“It looks pretty nasty down there,” she said. “It is our responsibility to come together as a people and take care of what is here in our community.”
While she is a River Sweep rookie, Montgomery said she lives an environmentally conscious lifestyle.
“I do my part at home, and out in the community. If I see garbage 30 feet from a trash can, I am going to go pick it up and throw it away,” Montgomery said. “And if I see a friend throwing away something you can recycle, I will take it home and put in my recycling.”
Montgomery said she was impressed by the positive atmosphere of the entire event.
“It is good to come together with other people who care about the earth and want to make a change,” she said.
She said she was touched several times by the participation of fellow volunteers.
“There was a kid with autism, a 19-year-old boy,” she said. “And to see the smile on his face to be able to help his community was very humbling. “And the parents that brought the little ones, the 3- and 4-year-olds. It is such blessing to see parents bringing their children up while instilling these values in them at such a young age.”
Montgomery said that she was glad she discovered the River Sweep event online and had no regrets of spending her Saturday morning in the hot sun collecting trash.
“It was actually a lot of fun,” she said. “I will definitely do it again in the future.”
The event was sponsored by the Clarksville Stormwater Department, Clarksville Parks Department and the Falls of the Ohio State Park.
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Related Photos
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From left, Michael Weston II, of Jeffersonville, Darrell Corbitt, of Goshen, Ky., Paul Olliges, of Louisville, and Mike Kolo, of Edwardsburg, Mich., work together while moving a discarded refrigerator up the river bank at the Falls of the Ohio State Park during the annual Clark County Ohio River Sweep on Saturday morning. Staff photo by Christopher Fryer
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Volunteers from Cub Scout Pack 10, out of Clarksville, move up the river bank with items they collected during the annual Clark County Ohio River Sweep at the Falls of the Ohio State Park on Saturday morning. Staff photo by Christopher Fryer
Discussion
July 22, 2012
PUBLIC SERVICE PICK-ME-UP: Volunteers say they enjoy cleaning up at annual River Sweep
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Participants from Parkview, Beechwood, Riverside, and Griffin recreation centers march along East Water Street following a history lesson at the Riverfront Amphitheater during their Juneteenth celebration on Tuesday afternoon in New Albany. Juneteenth is a national holiday that commemorates the end of slavery.
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